POPCHARGE
Charge-On-The-Go Solution for Mobile Phones
PROJECT: Popcharge CLIENT: POP CHARGE INC. TEAM: Shanshan Wang | Adam Lempel | Esther Kim | Yanli Yin
ROLE: Research, Visuals Design, Interaction Design DURATION: Dec 2019 - Apr 2020
Project Vision
WE ARE
Commuters, tourists and people on a night out often run out of phone battery and want to stay connected. They find it inconvenient to stand around waiting for their phone to charge in a wall outlet and don’t like having to lug around their own portable charger wherever they go.
​
POP Charge is a power bank rental service that addresses frustrations with heavy phone use on the go, and insufficient battery, while aiming to reduce carbon footprint through a collaborative-consumption business model.
Kickoff
Throughout this project, we used a goal-directed design approach that proved to be quite effective. Our qualitative research methods consisted of a kickoff meeting, literature review, competitive analysis, stakeholder interviews, and most importantly, the construction of a persona hypothesis. As a first step, we asked ourselves a few key questions.
" Who is this product for and what is it used for? "
" Who are our biggest competitors? "
"What challenges could we face moving forward?"
"Which users are the most important to the business?"
" What statistics should we review to familiarize ourselves "
" What is the North Star Metric for this project? "
Primary
Research
After a stakeholder interview, we created a business model canvas to better understand the key value proposition of POP Charge as well as its key customers, partners, relationships, and activities.
We then created a feature analysis chart, comparing the features offered by a variety of competitors and competitors to see what features users would expect and where we could gain a competitive advantage.
COMPREHENSIVE
FEATURES
01
We found that Charge Spot and RedShare have a more comprehensive feature set than their competitors and comparators, which is important because they are both direct competitors of POP Charge.
ACCOUNT
REGISTRATION
02
All of the apps except PowerShare also have Account Registration, which indicates that users would expect to register for an account with this type of app.
CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
03
All of the apps listed - except Zipcar - have an onboarding process to educate users on how to use the app, and all apps except PowerShare have a support/help section.
Affinity Map
We mapped out key quotes from our user interviews in the form of an affinity map, in order to easily see what our users were most frustrated by. This was instrumental in identifying our key features in our proposed app design.
Users would rent a portable charger if they were desperate for a charge.
Users think a couple of dollars per charge is a fair amount of money.
Users experience running out of battery, mostly if they are traveling as a tourist, commuter or on a night out.
Users would download an app as long is it were authentic.
Meet Our User
By conducting user interviews and usability tests of our direct competitor Redshare, we understood the needs of our users and their pain points when encountering low phone batteries. We used this persona in order to inform our design.
Esther in our team and I then created a user journey map in order to visualize how POP Charge can help our user Neil when he needs to charge his phone on the go.
Neil's Commute: A Step by Step User Journey
Competitor
Usability Test
We gain early insights by testing our competitive apps (Redshare & Citibike) that are early adopters, before investing in the feature.
Through our analysis, we were able to gather actionable insights in the form of key features that we implemented into our proposed app design. User error and confusion were directly addressed using different components and prioritization of screen flow.
Overall Success Rate
35%
Average Easiness Score
2.5/5
MAP NAVIGATION
Most of the participates couldn't find the location on the map, because it's lack of navigation.
QR CODE SCANNER
Users are confused by the "Rent" QR code scanner button, especially before they see the battery with the QR code.
UNEXPECTED PENALTY
Users are surprised by finding $35 penalty at the end of the checkout screen.
Wireflows
After sketching out some ideas and thinking through the preliminary flow, we use wireflows to improve collaboration between developers and stakeholders with a more precise and detailed view of the product. Using a flow for each page and interaction, team members can look at what happens when a user tries to finish a task. Later on, we conducted user testing with our target audience based on our wireflows which focuses on the layout, UI elements, and visual aspects like the colors, fonts, etc.
Challenge 1
Remove Barriers
We allow for an easy bypass of onboarding by putting a Skip button on top of the onboarding page and allowing the user to get to the next page by tapping anywhere on the page.
If the user wishes to browse the battery map within the app before creating an account, they might be more inclined to create one later on, the "continue as a guest" option allows the user to browse the app without an account.
Challenge 2
Navigation
The map helps users locate the nearest battery stations for available batteries and returning slots. The app also maps out routes to the kiosks and allows users navigate in cities.
We included the "Directions" and "I'm Here" buttons, for situations both the users are away from the rental stations, and in front of the kiosks.
Challenge 3
Simple & Secure
With payment methods and pricing accessible within a single screen, it allows for minimal screen usage and quicker checkout.
By reviewing the pricing policy, customers have one last chance to make sure they ordered and entered everything correctly. Due to this feature, checkouts are less likely to be lost as a result of the customer's perception that the price has increased.
Challenge 4
Easy Returning
A smart and simple returns process is the key to improving PopCharge's user experience. Find the nearest kiosk location, see the number of available slots to return, and drop-off the battery.
Style Guide
High-fidelity Usability Testing
Users responded positively to the high-fidelity prototype - drawn to the bright colors and welcoming voice. They found the app easy to use and understand because of the quick onboarding process and clear explanations. Because of its interactivity, users commented that the app felt more than just a rental tool. It felt more credible to users, which was a definite concern that was expressed in earlier interviews.
Task Time
26
1.5
Easiness
%
97
Success Rate
Next Steps
Recommendations
Using the insights gathered from our usability tests, we found that our next steps would be:
-
Remove or make the header smaller so as not to impede the map
-
After a user rents the battery the timer should clock up with the $ amount charged and the time of use
-
Promotional discounts depending on vendor
-
Possibility to skip QR code altogether and have phone register the nearest machine via bluetooth and moving towards a one button rental process